Hot Wheels' new AR track turns toy racing into a warzone

Not So Massively: Free Steam games and promotional gifts

It's Christmas time, and what better way is there to celebrate than to smash some internet people to bits in your favourite MOBA? League of Legends leads the charge with a gift of 450 RP delivered to every nice player who hasn't been banned in the past two months, and it shows off upcoming champion Victor the Machine Herald. Heroes of Newerth gives all players two free Christmas alt avatars and has a limited-time offer to buy a pack containing every previously released hero for just $10.

Rise of Immortals takes part in Steam's Great Gift Pile promotion that gives you the chance to win discount coupons or free Steam games, and it releases an immortal spotlight on Kavashiir. CrimeCraft: Gang Wars also offers players a Steam prize for playing its festive Snow Brawl game mode. Firefall clarifies the beta process and reminds fans that the game will be "done when it's done," and Torchlight developer Runic Games announces a new armour design contest. Finally, of all the intellectual properties to be made into an online game, did you ever think Doctor Who would make the list? BBC Worldwide has released an open preview of Doctor Who: Worlds in Time, a team-based puzzle game by the makers of Puzzle Pirates and Spiral Knights.

Skip past the cut for details of this week's biggest news from the world of MOBAs and other big online games that aren't quite MMOs.

Riot Games kicks off the holiday celebrations in League of Legends this week with a colossal prize of 450 Riot Points delivered to every nice player who hasn't been banned in the past two months. Players should have access to their RP on Wednesday 28th December and will immediately have enough to buy one of several skins and champions or multiple XP boosts. The present comes with an announcement that Riot plans to start giving new players RP for playing games and leveling up.

We got a first glimpse at upcoming champion Viktor the Machine Herald this week, confirming that he's another very unique character. Viktor's passive ability makes him start with a hex core item that can be upgraded in the gold store to augment one of his three main abilities. Viktor's main nuke returns a portion of its damage as a shield, and his ultimate creates an area-effect damage field that can be moved, which should make Viktor a tricky but very interesting champion to play. While we wait for Viktor to be released, this week Riot revisited classic jungler Ramus with the new champion spotlight below.

S2 Games joins in the holiday celebrations with a giveaway and a series of special Christmas deals. All players can claim free festive Jollywood and Christmas Keeper alt avatars, and Legacy players can collect a free Legacy account icon. Log in before midnight tomorrow to claim your free reward and take advantage of a temporary 25% drop in all store prices. As an added bonus, games will also generate double silver coins until December 30th.

If you're a big Heroes of Newerth fan but don't have a legacy account with all the heroes unlocked, you might be interested to know that S2 is selling a special package containing every hero released to date (with the exception of the two most recent heroes Lord Salforis and Shadowblade) for just $10.

We know that upcoming online FPS Firefall is slowly approaching beta, but a lot of fans have been confused about the beta process and launch schedule. This week Red 5 Studios contacted us to reiterate its position that the game will be "done when it's done" and give further details on exactly how the beta will proceed. The game is already in the first stage of its invite-only closed beta and is using a Gmail-style system in which players who already have access to the game will periodically be able to send invites to friends. Beta participation will remain extremely limited until the open world PvE testing phase is live and the servers are up 24/7.

If you played popular dungeon-crawler Torchlight and yearned for online play, your wish may soon come true. The game's sequel Torchlight II will contain LAN and internet co-op multiplayer modes and serves as a stepping stone toward a full-blown Torchlight MMO. To celebrate Christmas, this week its developer Runic Games launched an art contest asking fans to design their own sets of armour. The winning submission will be implemented in Torchlight II as a unique armour set, and its creator will win a signed Torchlight II poster.

In the game, you join together with other players to solve puzzles and beat challenges set by The Doctor. Every challenge involves playing minigames, and for completing them you win materials that you can use to make new equipment or decorate your very own room inside the TARDIS.

Rise of Immortals celebrates its first Christmas by taking part in the big Steam holiday giveaway. To win a prize on Steam, just download Rise of Immortals and get 10 assists in one match. Assists are granted when you help kill an enemy immortal but don't get the final blow, so the best way to get them is to team up with some other players and fight against bots, taking turns to lay the killing blow. Once each member of your team has 10 assists, you needn't even win the match to get your Steam reward, but you must finish it. If you're looking for another Steam gift, this is one of the easiest free ways to get one.

Petroglyph released an immortal spotlight this week for Kavashiir, the newest immortal to be added to the game. Although he's officially classed as a support character, Kavashiir is an incredibly effective nuker who deals massive amounts of true damage that ignores enemy defensive items.

Rise of Immortals isn't the only game that will let you win a free gift this Christmas. Playing CrimeCraft: Gang Wars can earn you another entry into Steam's Great Gift Pile giveaway. All you have to do to get the Snow Ballin' achievement and win a free gift is collect a total of 200 points in the Snow Brawl game type. The achievement used to require players to reach level 8 but now can be done as early as level 1. The game is free to play and must be played through Steam to get the achievement.

Snow Brawl is a special event game mode in which the only weapon you have is snowball grenades with no spash damage that are an instant kill on a direct hit. To make hitting with snowballs easier, I found it useful to swap the keyboard controls to put Use Slot 1 on the left mouse button for throwing snowballs and put Fire on the right mouse button for respawning. If you're not very good at aiming grenades, don't despair -- the 200 points needn't be all collected in one round. Just keep playing, and once you reach a running total of 200 points, you'll get the achievement at the end of the round.

Join us every Monday for Not So Massively, our roundup of the top news from popular online games that aren't quite MMOs. If you think there's a game we should be covering in Not So Massively or you've found some interesting news you think deserves attention in the next roundup, please mail the details to brendan@massively.com.